Then they were together so that as the hand on the watch moved,
unseen now, they knew that nothing could ever happen to the one that did
not happen to the other, that no other thing could happen more than
this; that this was all and always this was what had been and now and
whatever was to come. This, that they were not to have, they were
having. They were having now and before and always and now and now and
now. Oh, now, now , now , the only now, and above all now, and there is
no other now but thou now and now is thy prophet. Now and forever now.
Come now, now, for there is no now but now. Yes, now. Now, please now,
only now, not anything else only this now, and where are you and where
am I and where is the other one, and not why, not ever why, only this
now; and on and always please then always now, always now, for now
always one now; one only one, there is no other one but one now, one,
going now, rising now, sailing now, leaving now, wheeling now, soaring
now, away now, all the way now, all of all the way now; one and one is
one, is one, is one, is one, is still one, is still one, is
one descendingly, is one softly, is one longingly, is one kindly, is one
happily, is one in goodness, is one to cherish, is one now on earth
with elbows against the cut and slept-on branches of the pine tree with
the smell of the pine boughs and the night to earth conclusively now,
and with the morning of the day to come. Then he said, for the other was
only in his head and he had said nothing, “Oh, Maria, I love thee and I
thank thee for this.”From For Whom the Bells Toll, Earnest Hemingway.
Someday I'll do justice to the professor who took my Interpretation of Literary Texts class, and do a full analysis of this, with word and sentence structures and all that.
Today, I'll just let the words wash over me with the same semi-despairing, semi-elated charm that makes me return to Hemingway over and over and over again.
